No Name Yet
by SabbyRinaBanina
Summary: Cooper in the modern world B/R
1. Chapter 1

I've spent almost all of my life living in the dirt poor part of Corus. We're all working class people struggling to get by. We're common sense people; the mentality is to spend what you have to and save the rest for when you _really_ need it. Unless, of course, you're addicted to drugs, which a lot of people are. The current drug of choice is hotblood wine. People take wine, mix in various chemicals that react within the body and then pump so much adrenaline through your body it's amazing people don't just keel over and die from their hearts stopping.

My mother had once dated a man who loved it. I don't remember his name, but I remember what he used to do. I was young, and we were still living on Mutt Piddle Lane, the poor neighborhood of the Lower City, which is definitely saying something. When he would come home, I would hide while most of my other siblings would get out of the house as fast as they could without him noticing. I always stayed because I felt guilty, like I was abandoning her and forcing her to face fate alone. Nilo, of course, felt the same way, only about me. He told me once that everything's better when you have a friend there with you, a motto he still firmly believes in. Anyway, mom's man used to come in, crabby and smelling like alcohol. Sometimes he would throw up all over the floor, other times he would yell a lot and get really angry over nothing.

See, nothing me mom ever did seemed good enough for him. Dinner was too cold, the next day too hot. The house was messy, which shouldn't have mattered seeing as he didn't live with us, but apparently it did. One moment he was happy and cheery, giving mom gifts, the next he turned sad and angry and bitter. Then, when he was crossed, he would smack us, not hard enough to leave a mark, mind, just hard enough to get his point across. That lasted a month, after that, he didn't care and we were bruised often enough. By then my brothers and sisters had avoided him at all costs, so it was just me and mom, and Nilo when I couldn't make him leave hanging around the house when he was there.

It was one of those nights that changed my life forever. I was working on my homework and Nilo was with me when _he_ came in, smelling like hotblood wine and sweating like the pig he was. My sisters and other brother were out, I can't remember where. Naturally, Nilo and I hid behind the couch, which believe it or not was a very effective hiding place, see, it was so old that the back had come off on one half of it, so we could take out a cushion and hide in to hole and never be found. It was beautiful, unless someone sat down. Anyway, we couldn't understand what the hell he was saying, he was slurring so bad, but we could understand mom. She told him to leave, and never come back. She said she couldn't be with a man who treated her and her family so bad, but he just laughed.

You must uderstand, there are so many bad relationships going on, so many who are abused, the Dogs can't help them all. He knew she wasn't going to be helped by anyone, and he knew she was alone, totally and completely. He understood, in his wine-muddled mind, that he was stronger than her, and that he could do whatever he wanted because no one was coming. No one could stop him, and because of that she ended up being beaten to death that night. He didn't know that Nilo and I were hidden in the couch, that we knew what he was doing. I held Nilo tight and made him close his eyes and ears. He was young enough that he doesn't remember much of it, just hazy memories of fear and cries for help. I remember it all, and I will never, ever forget it.

Mom's murderer took everything of value that we had, most of it was jewelry that he had given her and money we had saved. No doubt he would go and buy more wine, or perhaps give it to that other mot I know he was treating just as bad. And then he left. I cried, long and hard. I couldn't leave mom alone, but I couldn't keep Nilo in the room too. He couldn't understand where his mommy was; mom was beyond recognition. I didn't want her to face her fate alone, I wanted her to know that I was with her, but I also knew that she was now in a place that I couldn't go and that whatever she had to face, she had to face it the worst way, alone.

So I did the hardest thing I've ever done. I left mom alone, and ran to Tansy's. Tansy was my best friend in the whole world, and I left Nilo with her mom. No explanation, nothing. I knew she would figure it out soon enough, especially because Nilo couldn't stop shrieking "mommy!" at the top of his longs. It seemed that the paralyzing fear he had felt before was gone. I left, to do what, I had no idea. I just know that I had to move, and I had to move now. I needed to something, he needed to pay, and I would make him. So I ran to what I knew was his favorite stripper bar and snuck in through a side door. I found a spot to the right of the stage with a clear view of the room behind some plants; I was prepared to wait days until he came in that door. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait more than an hour and a half. Not that I would have noticed if not for the clock directly across the room from me, I was so angry I was completely numb. My eyes were so cold they had the sensation of burning; it was the most peculiar feeling.

He staggered in but left within a half hour. Apparently he couldn't stay in one place for long, for I followed him in and out of strip clubs, bars, alleys and finally, to his home. He lived in a beaten up row house, probably owned by Crookshank. It was a dilapidated structure with broken windows and more weeds and bushes in the tiny yard than I had ever seen. Combined, the two factors made it absurdly easy to hide and watch him. When he got to the front door, it opened and a huge disgusted man yanked him in. I knew his face, he'd been wanted for the longest time, and the tattoos covering his shaved head were a dead giveaway. Apparently, the tattooed man was the ringleader of a gang that the Dogs couldn't sniff out. I stayed long enough to verify that this was, in fact, where mom's killer lived and then I left to find Dogs.

After awhile of running towards the headquarters, I say to Cops patrolling. They didn't believe me, so I left them, furious. By now, I was not in my right mind. I was angry at the world for not listening to those who need help, confused by what had happened to my mother and determined that her murderer would pay, which was why I rashly did what I did next. I was running down a street, when I saw a patrol car driving towards me. I stepped in front of it and it screeched to a halt. The driver leapt out, confused and angry. _"Do you have any idea what could have just happened?"_

I didn't even gratify that with a reply, I just told him, simply, that I knew where the gang was, and if he wanted them, to follow me. The man, in his late 30s then, stared at me. He looked at me and it seemed like he was searching for something. By now I was so angry that I just glared at him as if everything that had happened was his fault until he nodded solemnly, to the protest of his partner. So I turned and started walking away, and he followed me, while his partner locked the car and ran to catch up. It took us a decent amount of time; my feet by now were sore and bleeding a little. He offered to carry me, I was still young, but I just glared at him and he didn't mention it again.

I showed him the house, and told him that one of the men in there had killed my mom. He promised me that he would make the man pay for his actions under the law. I waited until the man brought reinforcements and arrested everyone inside the house, including my mom's killer. The moment I saw him, it told the nearest Dog and then turned tail and ran. As long as that man would pay for what he did, I felt as though I had no more part in what happened. I miscalculated, though. The dog followed me much like I had followed mom's man before, turns out the man who had first helped me had issued orders that if I were to leave he was to follow me.

Three days later, he showed up at Tansy's, where we had been staying because mom was still in our place, and introduced himself as the Lord Provost. Apparently I had saved his job, and a month later after mom's burial, we were all formally adopted into his family as his children.


	2. Chapter 2

The month in-between my mother's death and my adoption and the month after were the worst in my life. The Lord Provost moved us into his house and it was wonderful. He had good taste in furnishings, nothing to grand or fancy, but it had a kind of class that communicated kind power and high social standing. His gardens were nice but they lacked the wild, abundant beauty that untamed gardens of the Lower City posses.

My sisters were immediately taken under the Lady Provost's wing and she comforted them and held them because I could not. She dressed them nicely and taught them to speak properly by using flowery language that is altogether useless in an average day. The Lady tried that with me but I was not one meant to be comforted and soothed, I was meant for work. My little brothers took time to care for but the few servants the Provost had hired long before us took to them with alacrity.

My brothers were both wonderfully kind and open, the kind of boys that are sweet on everyone even if it hurts them. They loved to play games of any type, and the household leapt at the chance to integrate us and make friends. I learned the games, if only to keep busy. The lack of things to do was taking its toll on me. All of us felt empty and confused, we all felt the emptiness where mom used to be and as understanding as the house was, nothing could replace a mother.

It took awhile for my biological family to begin to be happy again, but I took longer. Much longer. I was grieving, all of us were, but I had no comfort, I had no one that understood me, I was alone. I was a girl who was always moving, always helping, always dealing with problems by doing something about them whether it helps anyone or not but here I didn't have to. Laundry was done for us by a maid and there were no chores to be done, no cooking, no cleaning, nothing that was required of us.

The Lady, I guess, must have assumed that by not giving us chores she was helping. For my family maybe, but for me? More time not doing anything was more time spent thinking about things I didn't want to remember. I ended up sitting in a room, alone, and I would lie on the floor staring at the shadows on the ceiling, crying. I cried every day, I felt empty, broken. How could anyone do something so horrible to another human being? Why would this happen? Was it my fault? I had no idea. I was just a child and I was devoid of any emotion beyond grief. I kept thinking about how I had left her alone, in order to find the man who killed her. Was it the right thing to do? Was it what she would have wanted? So filled with confusion, I was slowly turning into myself, searching for answers I could not provide.

It was the Lord Provost that finally snapped me out of it. He handed me a pair of boxing gloves, pointed me to a punching bag and told me to hit it as many times as I could, as hard as I could, and I did. I spent hours, that summer, beating at it, and my grief turned into anger. How dare he? How dare he do that to my mother? I wanted to beat at him, to punch him as hard as I could. I knew this wasn't possible, because he'd gotten a life sentence in prison coal mines for the remains of his life, but oh how badly I wanted to. It was the coldest summer of my life, I was so angry. I bore the Lady's lessons on how to talk grudgingly and I beat at the punching bag every day.

It was when I began to crave pain that the Provost changed my routine. So filled with numbing anger, I had needed to feel _something_. I did this the easiest way; I took off my gloves during my daily workout session. If you have ever tried beating at a rough object as hard as you can with no protection for your hands, you'll understand how much it hurts. My hands bled so much that I stained the bag. The Lady was horrified when she saw. The Provost intervened, and soon I was only allowed into the training area in his presence, and then only to spar.

He taught me to fight hand to hand combat and I was actually decent. I couldn't win a fight against anyone, but I would be able to get a few painful hits in. It was this way that he drew me out of my depression, and it was this way that I learned to open up again. He kept me busy, and when I was too exhausted to do anything, he got me to talk about how I felt. One by one, I asked questions, and one by one, he answered them.

I slowly dispelled my grief and anger, and people liked to tell me that I was becoming myself again, but I disagree. I would never be the same, ever. That summer had changed me forever, and I could never go back to who I was before. I was no longer an impudent child who refused any direction but my own, nor did I look at the world with wide eyes and see all of the possibilities it offered.

That summer gave way to a new person, and I didn't know if I liked her, but I knew I had to accept me for me now. I found that I possessed a kind of maturity rare in other people my age when I went back to school that September. I had to go to a new school, my old one was terrible, and I soon realized that I would probably spend it friendless and alone. Not only were the other students obnoxious and annoying, they were also oblivious. They didn't know who I was, or what my story was. Frankly, they knew almost nothing, nor did they care. They acted as if the world was wonderful and nothing bad would ever happen. They whined about immaterial and useless things that I knew could change the life of someone on Mutt Piddle Lane. For instance, the boy on my bus that complained about how his parents wouldn't drive him to school in their Porsche. He wanted the status, that "coolness" of arriving in such a car. If a family in the Lower City owned that, they could sell it and change their entire lives forever.

I was separated from the student body at Unicorn District Middle School- the Lady had tutored me so much that summer, I managed to test out of elementary school altogether. My sisters and brothers were happy at the elementary school, being open and innocent, they fit in well. Especially Loraine, she loved it and was soon the most popular girl in the 3rd grade. She loved this new lifestyle, I hated it. I needed something to do, an outlet. Karate was my first to tackle, next came jujitsu, and on and on and on. I knew various fighting styles and practiced them every spare moment of the day that I had.

There are two High Schools in the Lower City, Lower City High School and Mithros High School. I was tired of spending all of my time in the schools with the rich kids, it was demoralizing and lonely. I wanted to go back to school in a place I fit in, and I chose Lower City High.

Lower City High offers a program to start training young people as cops, or as they're more commonly referred to as, Dogs. I marketed hard to my Lord Provost, and he finally caved. The Lady was not so willing. The harangue she delivered was memorable, and she will always hold a grudge. When I was older, I realized that it was because I had rejected the lifestyle she offered and chose one she believed to be inferior. I was disappointed because Tansy was attending Mithros High, but I could see her more often, which would be nice.

My Lady, apparently, wanted as little to do with me as possible, though that was probably because I was rebellious in the worst possible way. Politely quiet about disobeying orders, she could scold me for failing to do as she ordered me, but she couldn't punish me. She attributed this to me just trying to make her angry but honestly, it was just my shyness. I never could understand how my Lord Provost had managed to live a happy life with such a…um…witch.

After she lost the fight about which school I was to attend, she set me up in a small apartment with a landlady. There was a lot of legal stuff to deal with, mostly because I was still a minor at 15.5, but she worked it out. Supposedly my landlady was supposed to be keeping tabs on me and acting like a mother hen or something, but that ended on day two when she walked up to my room on the second floor and told me "No drinking, no drugs. No loud parties, and absolutely no disturbing anyone else (which was ironic because the other three rooms she had to rent out, two below me and one on my floor were empty still, and had been for some time). Don't get pregnant, do get a job." And that was that.

She really was a kind lady; she just didn't want to deal with anything that she didn't have to. My Lady paid the rent and gave me an allowance for food. It wasn't much, but it would work. My landlady and I didn't see a terrible amount of each other; she would check in on me every once in awhile and I would seek her out at her job at the bakery to say hello every once in awhile, but that was about it. At least she was really supportive, and would listen to me any time I scraped up enough courage to talk to her. She gave good advice, too, and for that I'm glad, because in two days, I would have my first day at a new school, and I was both exited and terrified.


	3. Chapter 3

_September 1__st__, 2008_

_Written before school starts on the bus_

I am so nervous, today is my first day of high school. I'm probably the shyest person to walk the planet; I have no idea how I am going to be able to make friends with anyone.

I don't want a repeat of middle school, where no one knew me, nor bothered to care enough to try and get to know me. Everyone at Unicorn District Middle School was so rich and stuck up they probably would have made terrible friends anyway. They used to make fun of me, especially for my eyes. I had these gray eyes and got nicknamed 'ghost' for it. Middle school, needless to say, was not a high point in my life.

If I'm going to write a journal, I should probably describe myself. I'm average looking, average height. I have blond hair that's usually in a braid. I'm not very fashionable, I'm always just in jeans and a t-shirt, and sometimes I have a jacket when it gets chilly. I'm pretty smart and I usually work hard. I have extreme difficulty talking to people because I have a crippling shyness that only allows me to talk with people that I am very familiar with.

I have to go, I will write again later.

_Written after school, at home_

Well, it could have gone worse. I walked into the building; a big brick structure squashed between two giant grey buildings, office buildings that had seen better days is my guess. There's a blacktop in front, and a second building in back.

The back building is for Rats. I don't mean literal rats, though it has plenty of them too, I mean criminals or people who need to be held in a secure place for some reason. See, Lower City High School has a police training program, thank goodness. The king a few generations back started them in various places because the amount of crime was astonishing. It allows students to join the police force early, and it creates a schedule that works around out working hours.

We start out with basic training for a few months, which is about two hours a day every day until we pass the test which we're only allowed to take after a standard amount of time. They do that because the instructor, Kabibi Ahuda, needs enough time to judge the character of incoming Dogs.

I already did that over the summer by taking a bus down to the city once my lord Provost agreed that I was in my right mind enough. There, I met Ersken, a sweet guy who's usually very quiet but he has a good heart. I worry a bit about him, though, if he's so quiet how will he be able to keep order in the streets? When I voiced my concern to my other newly-made friend, Phelan, he just stared at me and told me that I should get over my own shyness before I mutter about other's.

Then he slung his arm around my shoulders and told me about his crush on Verene. He's always like that with us mots, hugging us and whatnot, but it isn't creepy or weird, he's just kind of like that extra older brother that everyone loves. He also has this huge crush on Verene though he refuses to do anything about it.

Verene is a wonderful girl; she's nice to everyone and can sing like no one else. She loves to tell stories and is such a warm person I'm surprised that there aren't more guys falling all over themselves to go out with her. She made it clear on the first day that she loves to flirt but if anyone is looking for something serious, she doesn't have the time nor the patience.

Anyway, I walked into the school; it was three, so the only ones here were those of us in training to become Dogs. I rarely if ever see other students not in the Dog program. I headed to the basement (we call 'headquarters', or 'HQ' courtesy of Phelan, the looby) to sign in that I was on time for training.

Today is our last day of training and it was when we would first have to opportunity to pass; those of us who fail would have to continue training and wouldn't get paired with anyone until they retook it. I straightened my uniform nervously and walked into the room.

As usual, I was the first one there and Ahuda immediately made me start stretching. As I bent over to touch my toes and stretch my legs, Phelan and Ersken walked in, both in uniform. They both came over and joined me after signing in. We gossiped until Verene entered the room and started telling us about her little brother's adventure involving climbing a tree, finding treasure (a bird's nest), falling, getting stuck in a bush, and something about and angry pigeon attack, but I'm not sure, I wasn't really paying attention.

The training room is a large bare room with mirrors covering two walls and scraped up hardwood floor. It's bare of any furniture except a cabinet in one corner to store weapons and first aid materials. At the moment, the other two walls were an ugly brown color, but as we have been told, that will soon be painted black.

We started basic training, which involved everything from us having to arrest each other and sparring to learning the law from text books. After two hours, when we were all thoroughly exhausted Ahuda began testing us one by one.

It's not really a big deal, all she does is quiz us each on law, uniform maintenance, make us demonstrate defensive techniques against her and a little offensive. We all passed except for a first year dog, which was surprising because he had passed once but also expected, considering he was a lazy human being with no motivation to do anything remotely challenging. We have to train with the first, second and even sometimes third year dogs depending. It's said that if you live long enough on the streets of the Lower City to make it to your fourth year, you've been getting enough practice as is and that you're good enough to not need any more basic training.

It took us an hour and a half to test everyone, which was suspenseful and nerve-wracking before you were tested personally and then completely boring once you'd finished. My hands were so sweaty from nerves that I dropped my baton when she asked me to demonstrate a move. Everyone laughed, and I blushed so hard I looked like a tomato. I still passed, though, which was a relief.

By now it was 6:30. Ahuda said "Alright, look. Those of you who passed you have to report back here at this time, 6:30 for basic training part two. You'll do this for two hours every day before your shift starting not tomorrow, but the day after. You get tomorrow off because you'll be assigned a pair of Dogs to work with for one year. Each puppy will be assigned to their Dogs by me, no picking and choosing, no requesting. You don't get special attention anymore." (Ahuda thinks 'special attention' is endless drills and her actually _watching_ us run around the city in case one of us drops instead of just making us do it on our own.)

After that, she just sent us home, and nothing noteworthy happened except for the baker giving me a slice of cinnamon bread for free in celebration of my passing the test. That was unusual and very kind of him. I'm glad to have friends in the city.

Anyway, I'm really tired now, and I want to go to sleep. I will write again tomorrow after my watch once I find out who my Dogs are.


End file.
